"And I do not approve of you giving valuable jewelry away."
"It was my very own. I had it long before I saw you."
"It was scandalous of Ducie to accept it. She ought not to be allowed to carry it away. You were not responsible when you gave it."
"And if it is scandalous for Ducie, my friend, to take a gift of my jewelry from my hands, what about the Campbelton women, who broke open my trunk, and took out of its case my class ring of diamonds and sapphires, worth eighty pounds; a ring my class paid for, and gave me. You promised me it should be returned. It never has been. Do you pretend that ring was yours? And is everything I possess yours? And do you permit your kindred to help themselves to whatever of mine they choose to appropriate?"
"You possess nothing—the hair on your head is mine. I can sell it if I choose. Your wedding ring is mine."
"I believe nothing of the kind. It is incredible."
"It is the law of England."
"You ought to have told me those things before I was married. I was beguiled into slavery. Why are girls in school not taught such things, if, indeed, they are true?"
"It is the law of England. Any lawyer will tell you so."
"Then it is contrary to the law of the Holy and Just One, and I will never acknowledge its right. I say, and shall always say, my class ring was stolen; and that the person who took it was, and is, a thief. The law may give you my clothing and ornaments, and your mother, assuming your things to be hers, may give them away; and you may call it lawful, but justice and equity would soon dispose of that legal fiction. I shall always deny it. To falter in doing so, would be sin."